As I’ve been vigorously commenting on Celtic pantheon ideas, I thought I should put my money where my mouth is and do a potential one myself.
I’ve tried to keep the benefits and powers of each god close to their myths. For example, Aengus was famous for being turned into a dove with his eternal love after scouring the world for her, hence his GP. Other gods GP’s attempt to reflect famous myths about them.
I’ve done most I can. Open to ideas of more faction mechanics, major god bonuses and heroes, as I’ve been a bit stumped on them. Any additions or changes I really like I’ll edit into the pantheon and add the appropriate credit!
I’m conscious I’ve left out Tuetates - this is a conscious choice. Tuetates is a grey figure in truth. It’s not truly known whether he was a specific god, or an invocation. A generic “god of the tribe”, he is known through prayer and invocations only, and his name translates into a generic name for guardian gods. As such, he is often thought of as a generic name for any specific guardian god of any tribe, rather than as a specific, identifiable deity. I hope that makes sense.
Anyway, please have a look and critique, comment, assess and improve as needed! Let’s create the ultimate Celtic faction that I hope will be the next civ after China!
Principle deities:
Dagda - God of strength, magic and Druids
God Power: Resurrection - target the body of a fallen unit before it disappears to bring it back to life
Focus: Myth units and Druids
Morrigan - Goddess of war, fate and death
God Power: Shapeshift - target any villager to shapeshift it into a random unit that is currently trainable
Focus: Human soldiers
Danu - Goddess of motherhood and agriculture
God Power: Lumber - target a lumber yard to increase the nearby wood gathering rate
Focus: Economy
Classical Age Minor Gods:
Cernunnos - God of nature, animals and fertility. His improvements benefit your huntsmen and kerns.
God Power: Wild Hunt - Target a group animals on the map to convert them to your control and give them increased attack. Increases the number converted with each age.
Myth unit: Cu-Sith - a fast and large hound whose triple bark causes damage to nearby human soldiers
Available to Dadga, Morrigan
Epona - Goddess of fertility and horse. Her improvements benefit your cavalry
God Power: Western Winds - directional target a group of soldiers to blast them backwards with a strong gust of wind
Myth unit: Selkie - weak in its original form. Can transform into any targeted unit, human or myth (essentially becomes that unit). Recharge is slow, but if it survives, and be used again to transform again. Can’t turn into villies, heroes, titans or god-power units like nidhogg or son of Osiris (classical)
Available to: Danu, Morrigan
Aengus - God of youth and love. His improvements benefit your infantry.
God Power: Dove - target any (own, allied or enemy) human soldier to turn them into a pair of fast flying doves, good for scouting.
Myth Unit: Dullahan - a headless horse who uses a human vertebrae as a whip. AOE effect damage and good against buildings
Available to: Dagda, Danu
Heroic Age Minor Gods:
Taranis - God of thunder. His improvements benefit your ships and Warrior Lodge units
God Power: Children of Tuireann - target a group of human soldiers to double their number (HP dependent similar to curse)
Myth unit: Aillen - a towering being with a ranged flame breath attack that is good against buildings
Available to: Dagda, Morrigan
Aine - Goddess of sovereignty, summer and wealth. Her improvements benefit your villages
God Power: Drought - Heats up the map and prevents enemy farms from producing food for a while
Myth Unit: Sluagh - flying apparitions that pick up enemy human units and insta-kill them dropping them (Trimyth1699 credit)
Available to: Dagda, Danu
Belenus - God of healing. His improvements benefit your Druids
God Power: Elder trees - target Sacred Trees to upgrade them to Elder trees. These trees provide buffs to all allied units in their range, generate increased favour and can be “uprooted” and “regrown” elsewhere for a small cost.
Myth unit: Fear Gorta - an emaciated human that generates food by fighting
Available to: Danu, Morrigan
Mythic Age Minor Gods:
Lugh - God of law, light and nobility. His improvements benefit your Ringfort Units.
God Power: Heroism - Provides a huge bonus to all human soldiers against myth units and buildings for a period of time, effectively turning them into heroes
Myth unit: Aos Si - Powerful cavalry spirits who ignore armour and buff the attack of nearby Fiann, Gallowglass and Gallic Nobles
Available to: Dagda, Danu
Brigit - Goddess of knowledge, poetry and protection. Her improvements benefit your technology and buildings
God Power: Pox - summon the pox to disfigure the enemy units. Halves all enemy units HP in the radius it’s cast
Myth unit: Banshee - a strong melee fighter with low HP that has a shriek ability that temporarily causes units around it to run away.
Available to: Danu, Morrigan
Arawn - God of death and the other world. His improvements benefit your myth units
God Power: Spirits - temporarily turn your troops invisible to the enemy (are revealed if attacked)
Myth unit: S u c c u b u s - a daemonic female spirit that converts enemy units
Available to: Dagda, Morrigan
Faction Mechanics:
Villagers cost wood instead of food (stolen from Skadidesu. It works very well)
Villagers use crossbows to one shot hunt and all hunt lasts longer
Can train herdables from a unique building, Pastures (goat classical, pig heroic, cow mythic)
Scouting:
Druids. Convert trees into outposts with large LOS. These trees lose half their wood upon harvesting. A tree can’t be converted within the LOS of another tree
Starting units:
4 villagers
1 Druid
Favour:
Sacred groves: Can be build anywhere on the map, but preferably next to forests.
Groves generate favour based on the number of trees, berry bushes and gold mines in their radius. The favour generation rate depends on the amount of resources in those trees, berry bushes and gold mines but Wood is considered 2x compared to the other resources.
Those resources can not be harvested, not even by enemies, unless the Grove is destroyed. Groves also prevent buildings from being build in their radius.
The number of Groves is limited to 1 per Age.
You can pay gold to grow Sacred Trees.
Sacred Trees are a lot larger than normal trees and have symbols caved into them. They heal nearby civilian and religious units (Druids and Bards) as well as generate more Favour then normal Trees.
Their number is limited and then can be attacked by enemies.
These ideas were poached from Skadidesu, who originally posted it in their Celtic idea. I liked it so much I feel it works and couldn’t come up with a better way of incorporating nature for favour myself. All credit to Skadidesu.
Heroes:
Druids: Age 1. Trained from the Temple. Druids have moderate bonuses vs myth units, but can build the sacred groves needed to generate favour. When tasked to a sacred grove, generate increased favour. During battle, Druids can inspire (think of a “healing priest” for the Egyptians) a unit for increased damage and resistance.
Units:
Celtic soldiers are generally faster than most other civs and have increased LOS, but suffer from lower HP and resistance.
Warrior Lodge units:
Woad raiders: Age 2. High damage output but glass cannons - low pierce and hack armour. Good against infantry and cavalry.
Huntsmen: Age 2. Long range and high damage. Good against buildings (flaming arrows) and infantry.
Kern: Age 3. Low HP and damage skirmishers with a powerful javelin that counter cavalry specifically. Weak to infantry and missile.
Gaellici: Age 3. Infantry who throw flaming torches to destroy buildings. Siege unit.
Livery:
Gallic raiders: Age 2. Skirmisher cavalry. Fast but low hp. Ranged attack. Good against archers and cavalry.
War c h a r i o t: Age 3. High HP and high damage charioteers with an AOE attack, but low pierce armour. Good against cavalry and infantry.
Ringfort:
Gallic Nobles: Age 3. Slow but powerful infantry with high HP, armour and damage. Good against everything
Fiann: Age 3. Fast infantry with a bonus against myth units and have alternate ranged attack. Regenerate health.
Gallowglass: Age 4. Scottish infantry with a large sword. Good against heroes.
Sea Myth:
Kelpie (Heroic): black water horse with the same abilities as the selkie, but for water units
Sea Mither (Mythic): Benevolent spirit of the seas who calms the winds and waters and temporarily prevents enemy ships from sailing away (stuns)
OR
Mermaid (Mythic): Powerful combatants that can fight on land as well as water
Titan:
Balor